Hotel Conte wedding in Perast: dinner by the water or on the square

If your guest list is small and you’d love the whole celebration to happen a few steps from the water, put Hotel Conte near the top of your shortlist. And if you’re still weighing up every option in town, have a look at our complete guide to a wedding in Perast.

What makes Hotel Conte a good wedding venue?

Hotel Conte makes a good wedding venue because the whole celebration happens in the heart of historic Perast, on the main square by the water. The hotel was opened by the Kasalica family, who restored their old stone palazzos and houses in the town and turned them into a hotel with a restaurant.

Today the hotel has four stars and five Baroque-style buildings. Reception and the restaurant are in the main building on the central square, and the other four are a few hundred metres away. There are 28 double rooms and 11 family suites in total, so the two of you and your closest family and friends can stay right where the party happens.

Perast is part of the UNESCO-protected Kotor region, and the hotel is surrounded by Baroque churches and palaces from the 17th and 18th centuries. The old stone façades around both terraces do most of the decorating for you, so flowers and candles are really just a finishing touch.

Hotel rules worth knowing before you book

A small hotel in an old town has its own quirks, and you’ll want to know them before you book:

• Decor isn’t included. The hotel doesn’t handle styling, so your planner finds the florists, lighting and furniture.
• The terrace is yours from 16:00. That means tables and flowers go up in the afternoon.
• Music until midnight. You can bring a live band or a DJ to any room or terrace, but folk, hard rock, metal and turbo-folk aren’t allowed on the terraces.
• No cars in summer. From May to October cars aren’t allowed into the centre, and guests walk about five minutes from the car park.

Where does the wedding dinner take place at Hotel Conte?

The wedding dinner at Hotel Conte is served on the waterfront terrace or on the terrace on the old square, and for a very intimate ceremony or a dinner with just your nearest and dearest there’s the 17th-century restaurant hall. Most couples choose between them based on two things: the view they want from the table and the budget they’re happy to set aside.

The waterfront terrace

The waterfront terrace runs right along the promenade. On one side are old stone façades, on the other the bay and the islands of Our Lady of the Rocks and St George. Guests sit facing the water at dinner, and as the evening goes on, lights come on across the bay. The minimum spend here is two to three times higher than on the square.

The terrace on the old square

The terrace on the old square is surrounded by Baroque palazzos and churches, with the St Nicholas bell tower rising right beside it. Take a closer look at this one if your guest list is small and you prefer the cosy feel of the old town to wide-open sea views.

The 17th-century restaurant hall

The 17th-century restaurant hall, with its old stone walls, suits a very intimate ceremony or a dinner with just the two of you and your closest people. The hotel only gives its terms for the hall on request, so your planner checks them together with the date.

Got a bigger guest list? Perast has larger venues too. Heritage Grand Perast hosts up to 150 guests on its piazza, and up to 80 people can dine in the garden of the Leon Coronato palazzo.

Fallen for the waterfront terrace or the square by the bell tower? Send us your date and a rough guest count. We’ll recommend a trusted planner, who will check with Hotel Conte whether the terrace is free and work out what the dinner will cost.

Where can you hold the ceremony if dinner is at Hotel Conte?

If your wedding dinner is at Hotel Conte, you can hold the ceremony on the old square or in the restaurant hall, or marry in one of the churches the hotel itself suggests. Here’s how the options differ:

• Perast’s old square. The simplest choice: vows in the open air, then just a few steps across to dinner.
• The 17th-century restaurant hall. For the two of you and your closest people, when you want quiet and old stone all around.
• A church wedding. Among the popular options, the hotel lists the Catholic Church of Our Lady in the small town of Prčanj and the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Virgin. Each parish sets its own conditions for weddings, and your planner makes the arrangements with them.

Can you get married on Our Lady of the Rocks?

Getting married on Our Lady of the Rocks probably won’t be possible. The Catholic church on the island currently only marries people who were baptised there or come from Kotor Municipality, and it doesn’t take bookings for wedding dates. You can shoot on the island once the church closes, which is 18:00 in summer, and from a boat you can get the islands in your photos at any time.

The legal ceremony

You can legally marry right on the square or on the terrace, because civil ceremonies in Montenegro can be held off-site. Perast belongs to Kotor Municipality, so you apply there in advance, and you’ll need two witnesses at the ceremony. The paperwork depends on your nationality, and we’ve covered it in our article on documents for getting married in Montenegro.

How much does a wedding at Hotel Conte cost?

A wedding at Hotel Conte costs at least the minimum spend on food and drink, which the hotel sets so that the terrace is yours alone for the evening. The hotel doesn’t list a separate venue hire fee: you guarantee the restaurant a set amount, and if your guests eat and drink less, you still pay the difference.

The amount depends on which terrace you choose and the month of your wedding. July to September is the most expensive, and the waterfront terrace is cheapest in April:

What else goes into the budget?

Wedding set menus at the hotel restaurant cost from €60 to €80, the vegetarian menu is €50 and the chef’s menu €109. You can also put together your own menu or go for family-style sharing or a buffet. The open bar is priced by the hour, from €34 for two hours to €138 for six.

On top of that comes a 10% service charge. You secure the date with a 50% deposit and pay the rest on the wedding day. The hotel doesn’t refund the deposit, except in cases of force majeure such as a natural disaster. Decor, music, photography and video aren’t included in these prices.

To get a feel for the whole budget, see how much a wedding in Montenegro costs, broken down item by item.

Want to see figures for your date rather than a range from a table? Get in touch, and we’ll recommend a planner you can order a quote from. They’ll pull the minimum spend, menu, bar, decor and music together into one budget.

What does a wedding day at Hotel Conte look like?

A wedding day at Hotel Conte is built around two hotel rules: the terrace is only yours from 16:00, and the music stops at midnight. Everything else fits in between, roughly like this:

The right time for your ceremony depends on the month. Steep slopes rise above Perast, so the soft light fades earlier than the forecast sunset time, and earlier still in September than in June. That’s why we work out the timing of your portraits for your exact date in advance.

Islands in the background

If you’d like photos with the islands behind you, build a short boat trip of 30 to 40 minutes into the day: the view of Perast from the water is completely different from the one on the terrace. We explain how these shoots work in our article on hiring a boat for a photoshoot.

Dreaming of portraits on the water and candid coverage of your dinner by the bay? Send us your wedding date and we’ll let you know whether we’re free that day.

Where should guests stay for a Hotel Conte wedding?

The easiest place for your guests to stay is Hotel Conte itself: its five buildings have 28 double rooms and 11 family suites. The annexes, a few hundred metres from the square, have rooms with their own entrance, courtyard and kitchen, plus a pool and a jacuzzi. They’re ideal for a family or for bridesmaids who want to get ready together.

If there aren’t enough rooms, there are other hotels close by in Perast:

• Heritage Grand Perast, about 130 rooms
• Leon Coronato, 14 rooms
• Hotel Per Astra
• Vila Perast
• Palace Jelena
• Monte Bay Retreat

Tiny Perast doesn’t have many hotels, and they fill up fast in season, so book your guests’ rooms the same day you confirm your date. If you run out of space, the rest can stay in Dobrota or in Kotor itself, about 15 km away, which has a far bigger choice: see our guide to hotels in Kotor.

We’ve covered airport pick-ups and transfers to Perast in detail in our guide on how to get your guests to a wedding in Montenegro.

Do you need a wedding planner for Hotel Conte?

You almost always need a wedding planner for Hotel Conte, and the reason is simple: the hotel looks after the food, drink and terrace, and everything else is left to you. Here’s where a planner really helps at Hotel Conte:

• Minimum spend. Works out whether the menu and bar will cover your guest count, so you don’t end up paying the restaurant the difference, and factors in the 10% service charge from the start.
• Styling. The hotel doesn’t do decor, so the planner finds florists, lighting and furniture and gets everything set up after 16:00.
• Music. Finds a band or DJ whose set suits the terrace rules and wraps up by midnight.
• Church or civil ceremony. Deals with the parish or handles your application with Kotor Municipality.
• Guests. Sorts out who meets everyone at Tivat airport (about 25 km away) and how older relatives get from the car park.

We’ve covered what to look for in a planner in our article on how to choose a wedding planner in Montenegro. But you don’t have to search blindly: get in touch and we’ll recommend a trusted planner. Order a quote from them, and they’ll check Hotel Conte’s terms for your date and price up everything, decor and dinner included.

Who can photograph and film your Hotel Conte wedding?

We can photograph and film your Hotel Conte wedding as a duo, in one shared style: no ostentatious staging, but with humour and meaning. There’s no need to pose. All you have to do is relax and be yourselves.

We keep the live sound in our wedding films, and at an intimate wedding you really feel the difference: your vows on the square, every toast at the table by the water and the laughter of your loved ones stay in the film in their own voices. The result isn’t a music video but the story of your day, about 10 minutes long in 4K.

We’ve photographed weddings in Perast many times, for example Joe and Ellie’s wedding in Perast. Another story from the town, Mitch and Anna’s wedding in Perast, has its own album too, and you’ll find our films in the section on wedding videography in Montenegro.

Looking for a wedding photographer in Montenegro? Send us the date you have in mind at Hotel Conte and we’ll check whether we’re free. And you’ll find the best spots for a shoot in town on our photographer in Perast page.

Frequently asked questions

Finally, a quick round-up of what couples ask us most often about a Hotel Conte wedding.

More wedding venues in Perast and the Bay of Kotor

Comparing options? Here are other venues we’ve written about:

• Heritage Grand Perast, the biggest wedding venue in Perast
• Leon Coronato, dinner in the garden of a 17th-century palazzo in Perast
• Casa del Mare, a hotel base for your wedding on the Bay of Kotor
• Limoneto, a terrace venue on the Bay of Kotor
• Bocasa, a terrace reception on the Bay of Kotor
• One & Only Portonovi, a wedding at a luxury resort

And we’ve compared every type of venue, from villas to resort hotels, in our overview of wedding venues in Montenegro.

Set on Hotel Conte, or still torn between the water and the square? Tell us which month you’re looking at and how many guests you’re expecting. We’ll put you in touch with a trusted planner, who will check whether your terrace is free and price up the whole evening, from the minimum spend to the decor. And we’ll take care of the photos and video ourselves.